Fate Core System

Grab your plasma rifles, spell components, and jetpacks! Name your game; Fate Core is the foundation that can make it happen. Fate Core is a flexible system that can support whatever worlds you dream up.

Have you always wanted to play a post-apocalyptic spaghetti western with tentacle monsters? Swords and sorcery in space? Wish there was a game based on your favorite series of books, film, or television, but it never happened? Fate Core is your answer.

Fate Core is a tabletop roleplaying game about proactive, capable people who lead dramatic lives. Create your characters and develop instant group dynamics with our unique phased char gen system. Use those characters as a springboard to storytelling in our GM worldbuilding chapters.

For the Fate-familiar, take advantage of the new and improved approaches to character actions, aspects, compels, and more. With Fate Core, your story is up to you. But whatever you choose, you can expect a fun storytelling experience full of twists…of fate.

Any chance we'll get an updated PDF incorporating the errata collated over at the Evil Hat website? Especially including the update to how boosts work?

December 13, 2016 7:54 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

That hasn't been a priority for us, I have to admit, but I'll keep it in mind.

Samuel KDecember 13, 2016 8:05 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Thanks. There's not much, so it wouldn't take long. Heck, you'd probably even have time to do FAE and the Toolkit as well. Let me know if you need an unpaid intern ... :)

December 31, 2015 12:21 pm UTC

PURCHASER

Hello....I do not seem to be able to purchase the product
I am happy to pay the $5 but I cannot fill in the box

December 31, 2015 3:18 pm UTC

PUBLISHER

That's a customer service problem that needs to be addressed by DriveThruRPG rather than the publisher — please contact them via the usual means rather than in the comments, which I expect they will not see!

Michael DDecember 22, 2014 3:22 pm UTC

PURCHASER

When I first heard about Fate Core, I wasn't interested. I'd played Spirit of the Century, I'd played Diaspora - why buy the same system again with all the setting content removed? How foolish that sentiment seems now. Consistency and clarity became the design goals of the new Fate edition, and combined with not-insubstantial tweaks made to gameplay both central and peripheral, they have transformed something promising into the best RPG release of the last four years.

It almost seems pointless to list the game's achievements, when anyone can download the book for free and find out for themselves. Though skills are the game's core, resolving every action with a single roll against a flat or opposed difficulty, aspects are the juicy fruit around them. Each is a short phrase that describes something fundamental to a character's identity; or to a scene, change in combat circumstances, or the game world beyond them. When an aspect is advantageous, characters can spend tokens for a bonus on their...See more skill roll. When an aspect is disadvantageous, the GM can offer the character a token, whilst introducing a narrative complication.

Aspects work splendidly for many reasons. Firstly, the ebb and flow of the token economy is an excellent pacing mechanism, producing both heroic accomplishments (with big spends) and dramatic setbacks (when accepting rewards). Furthermore, treating the aspects of PCs, enemies, settings and combat arenas in exactly the same way makes the game incredibly easy to learn once that first level of understanding clicks. Finally, because players choose their character aspects freely, rather than select them from a list, it empowers players enormously to decide what part of the game world actually matters to them. In the hands of creative players, this can produce something magical indeed.

The more you put into Fate, the more you get out. It's clearly designed to be hacked to suit the needs of its gaming group - one of the game's first expansions was designed specifically for that purpose. To some, that's a downside. Since the game has no setting of its own, it can feel a little flavourless, and it takes an experienced Fate gamer to design new content that doesn't unbalance the game. Whilst I'm sympathetic to those criticisms, they contrast sharply with my own perspective. When the game is this good, expecting commitment from me is a compel I am happy to indulge.

(I never review a game I haven’t played or run. Check out http://michaelduxbury.com/category/reviews/ for more RPG reviews.)

Fate Core is currently my favorite roleplaying game system! It really can handle just about any setting. We've done postapocalyptic, pulp, space epics, superheroes, steampunk, and so on (I still have a hard time running horror, but that may just be me) [...]

Fate is a really neat system, but the biggest issue I have with it is that it seems to take a group of active fairly experienced roleplayers to pull off well. The Fate system needs the players to have a ton of input into the world and be driven. [...]

While I can't say I adore the system after trying it, I believe that to be a matter of taste. The quality of the material provided within the manual is solid, though. It's very clear throughout and gives reasonable examples. The fact that it consistent [...]

I'd been hopeful about FATE ever since I heard about "a game that uses FUDGE dice." I backed the kickstarter at the hardcover level, and was impressed with how its creators maintained transparency, produced professional work, and kept backers [...]

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